I’m grateful for all of the blessings in my life as I reflect on my place in this world on the eve of Thanksgiving.

Health and happiness have always been the two key things I’ve asked God for as an adult. When I see a stray penny on the ground I always bend over to pick it up; my simple prayer on that penny is for “health and happiness.” I realize it’s a lot to ask for, yet if ever two words in a wish could come true, I’d like it to be “health and happiness.”

It seems every time I’ve gotten down in the mouth about what I could consider depressing about my current lot in life, I’m sent an example of someone who has a path exponentially more difficult than mine.

I was listening to the BBC radio early Thursday morning and a story came on about how people have endured their lives taking a 90-degree turn. One woman described how she and her husband desperately wanted to become parents and after six-and-a-half years they had a daughter. She said her husband just glowed as a father and over the next eight years the three-person family was wonderfully happy. One morning her husband kissed her goodbye and went out for a jog. Their daughter was watching cartoons on the television. The woman went to the treadmill in their home to get some exercise herself. In about a half-hour, there was a knock on the door.

The woman opened the door and a man dressed in a suit with a badge hanging from his pocket asked for her name. He was there to tell her that her husband had been hit by a car and had died.

Of course the woman was crushed. The loss was overwhelming. She was standing at the door and could see her daughter out of the corner of her eye watching cartoons. All she could think about was how much her husband had loved being a father and all of a sudden she was a single mother.

The stories that remind me to enjoy life and its creature comforts and focus on the blessings I have don’t just come from radio shows. I’m old enough to have experienced real loss. My mother passed away three years ago this Christmas. My father has progressive dementia.

My extended family has suffered incredible losses. I lost a cousin who died in his 40s due to a freak, unexpected heart ailment. He left behind the loves of his life — his wife and young son.

That cousin’s older brother, one of my closest cousins growing up, lost a wife and a son in a traffic accident on U.S. 41 when a semi driver fell asleep at the wheel, crossed into the oncoming lane and it led to a head-on crash. There was nothing that could stop it.

The day that happened, something about my life changed. Since that day I’ve made it a point to tell family members and friends when I see them that I love them. This is because you just never know when you’re going to see somebody again. We live in a world filled with unexpected accidents and 90-degree turns. Tomorrow is guaranteed to no one.

It’s important to share love and peace. It’s important to forgive and always try to make amends. It’s true that we can’t change the past, and we won’t always be able to get or give the forgiveness we need as perfectly as we would like. But it’s important to try. It’s important to make the effort to not only ease the minds of those around you, but also give yourself an opportunity to be at peace.

I’ve been to many Thanksgiving dinners over my lifetime that have been shared with my family. My parents used to drive my sister and I all around southern Wisconsin on Thanksgiving Day, visiting relatives, eating food, talking, playing cards … I’m glad I grew up in a family like that. Through our actions we were giving thanks.

Trying to honor those traditions in this world is more difficult. Things were different 50 years ago. Not just technology, but people and the way the world worked. The demands on people are so much more heavy now. Yet, as I’ve always been quick to say, life is what we make of it. Although we can suffer loss and feel grief, we also can choose to be thankful for what we have. We can stop comparing ourselves to others. We can be happy with what we have and trade away material things for meaningful relationships.

I’ve been lucky to have had that simple wish of “health and happiness” for most of my life. I’ve mainly received it and have been blessed with family and friends. I’m surrounded by caring, honest, upbeat people. It’s for these things that I give thanks on this Thanksgiving Day.

— Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.